The diffuse infiltration of road runoff: an environmental improvement.

The Laboratory of Engineering and Environmental Geology (GEOLEP) has been mandated by Swiss authorities (Swiss Federal Road Office FedRO) to test a new road runoff management concept. This concept promotes the diffuse infiltration of road runoff into infiltration slopes designed for this purpose. Soils retain particles and contaminants; this lowers the road impact on the environment and simultaneously improves aquifer recharge.

A methodology to estimate the denitrifying capacity of a riparian wetland.

Numerous studies have shown that riparian wetlands can play an important role in reducing nitrate concentrations before the ground water discharges into streams. Denitrification has been identified as an important process for this removal. Several approaches have been proposed to predict the denitrifying removal capacity of a riparian wetland, but no widely used tool exists to precisely quantify this capacity at the landscape scale.

Pathogenic-bacterial water contamination in mountainous catchments.

This space-time study of bacteriological response compared the presence of pathogens with indicators contained in surface and groundwater in mountainous regions. A systematic search for bacteria such as Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter and Yersinia carried out simultaneously with a search for indicators has shown that these waters can occasionally contain potentially pathogens, though these are generally to be found in small quantities. The most common pathogens found are Campyobacter and Listeria.